Black Banner

Painting time was a bit more plentiful this week, thanks to a cold, so I made a start on Rob's Westphalians and even managed to paint up a flag for them.

It's another one of those tricky Prussian cross jobs. Something black and menacing seemed to be called for, I thought. Just the ticket for storming Plancenoit.

I made a slightly better job of it this time, I reckon, by making a paper template. This was used to create an impression on my fizzy can metal by placing the template onto the flag and pressing onto it with a ballpoint. It sort of worked.....

Auf wiedersehen,

WM

Garrison Duty

Today was supposed to be spent finishing off the horses on my cuirassiers, but I started fiddling about with the Garrisons again and no horses were painted. I don't know what it is about the G-men, but I just adore them. Exactly the same thing happened when I was painting my French Garrison battalion, who threatened to elbow aside my Prussian reservists at one point.

Pictured below are the day's results:

The standard bearer was dead easy, of course, as all I had to do was cut away his musket and drill a couple of holes. The Silesian Landwehr flag he's carrying, needless to say, is not what he'll be carrying when he's finished, but it's shown here to give an impression of what the final result ought to look like.

The drummer was a much bigger challenge. I spent hours carefully paring back his arms with the intention of repositioning them, but when I tried to re-attach them they disintegrated. To make matters worse, I'd changed the solder I've been using recently and it really wasn't working very well. In the end I had to revert to my earlier supply and chop off a new pair of arms from a surplus Lamming Guard Grenadier. He still needs a little bit of work, but he's basically all there now. There's now a very high probability that the Garrisons will queue jump my cuirassiers, although I'm still fighting it.

In other news, my friend Rob G has sent me the attached, demonstrating once again his extraordinary painting accomplishments. Those have got to be among the best Poniatowski' and Ponsonby figures ever painted. Rifleman Plunkett, Rob tells me, is the chap they are about to tread on.

Last but not least is a selection of the absolutely stunning flags Rob has been gradually adding to 'Lee's wonderful Hinchliffe ECW army. These make me weep for my teenage self. My own attempts back in those days were absolutely abysmal.

That's it for now. It'll be either more Garrisons, cuirassiers or a general or two in the next post, although I also have some gunners on the go so anything could happen really.

WM

The Lost Garrison

It's the day after Waitangi Day here in the Land of the Long White Cloud, so I've been taking a bit of time off to paint toy soldiers. This has mostly been devoted to cuirassiers, but while I was about it I also had a crack at one of the wonderful Garrison Prussian Landwehr sent to me by Rob Y. This was a bad idea, as I want a whole battalion of these delightful figures now and they're really not allowed until I've finished Phase 2.

He's a Garrison PN 12: Prussian Landwehr marching, of 1973-design vintage, or thereabouts. The intent, I am assuming, was to expand the existing Garrison Prussian range, which the year before had included guard, line and landwehr in advancing poses. Alas, Rob tells me, the moulds for these are no more, but I've found a picture of some of them.

The image below of troops from Peter Gilder's collection appeared in Charles Grant's Napoleonic Wargaming, published in 1974. The troops in line attacking Plancenoit are Garrison Prussian Guards and Landwehr (codes PN 2 and PN 11, respectively according to the 1972 catalogue). Line infantry (PN 7s) can also be glimpsed in the village. Marching up in column behind them are Lammings, albeit with Hinton Hunt officers by the looks of them.

If anybody has any of these and would like to send me pictures of them, I would be extremely grateful.

There may or may not be another post this weekend. I have a couple of generals on the go and with a bit of luck I may have one of them to show off in a day or two.

WM

Prussian Presents 2

I must apologise for my atrocious posting rate of late. Work stress is the cause of it. Although this usually helps me with my hobby, as I find it so relaxing, it's reached such a level in the last few weeks that I've been spending the evenings and weekends absolutely prostrate. Needless to say, this has been having a very bad effect on my cuirassier production.

There are two things which have happened in the last two days which ought to improve this situation. The first is that I have delivered on the major project which was distracting me so seriously; and the second was the arrival this morning of these splendid chaps:

They are 23 x Garrison PN 12: Prussian Landwehr, marching. Rob Young, the proprietor of Garrison, very generously sent them to me. Followers of Rob's wondrous Eastern Garrison blog will have seen these in recent weeks. I cannot adequately express how grateful and delighted I am, not the least because Rob is not actually open for business these days, so this was a very special favour.

The photos really don't do justice to what is a really nicely proportioned and animated figure with subtle but excellent detailing. I'm going to love painting these.

The vital question. of course, is how compatible are they with Hinton Hunts? The answer is not too badly at all, as I hope the following will demonstrate. Pictured below are the PN 12s next to a battalion of vintage Hinton Hunt PN 8: Prussian Infantry of the Line 1810-15, Private, marching. If you click to embiggen you'll also see a David Clayton version of the Hinton Hunt PN 20: Prussian Landwehr officer, marching, commanding the Garrisons. He's certainly a little shorter, but with his thick Clayton base to give him a bit of a boost, I think he can still do the business.

A close up of the HH PN 8s next to the Garrison PN 12s is shown below. To even things up a bit, the Hinton Hunts are on my standard 2mm-thick bases, while the Garrisons are on 1.5mm-thick bases. As you can see, the Garrisons are still a little taller, but are a fair match nonetheless.

I'd been wondering what to paint for Phase 3 of my project, and for a while was seriously considering leaving Prussians off the list. There's no doubt now that there'll be at least two new Prussian battalions. They'd go rather well with the Lutzowers, I reckon, to recreate Tippelskirch's 5th Brigade of the Army of the Lower Rhine. This will require the Garrisons to be painted as the 5th Westphalian Landwehr, which will suit them very nicely, I think.

Thank you Rob!

All the best

WM